[Assassins]

Warlords IV: Heroes of Etheria v1.05B [RePack] [Eng, Rus]


Год выпуска: 2004
Жанр: Turn-Based Strategy
Разработчик: Infinite Interactive
Издательство: Ubisoft Entertainment
Платформа: PC
Тип издания: Репак
Язык интерфейса: английский, русский
Язык озвучки: английский
Таблэтка: Не требуется
Multiplayer: (8) hot seat, LAN, Internet, PBEM
Системные требования:
Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP, CPU 450 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 16MB 3D video card, 32 MB sound card, TCP/IP 56 kbit/s
Описание:
Старейшая серия пошаговых стратегий, которая верно придерживается своих традиций. Является прародительницей Heroes of Might and Magic, Disciples, Age of Wonders и т.д. вы ещё не играли?
Опять 25, Российский издатель забивает на патчи, ну ничего, на то вам эта раздача.

- За основу взята европейская лицензия
- Полная версия, убраны некоторые неигровые элементы
- Игра пропатчена до последней неофициальной версии 1.05B
- Warlord & Retinues Editor обновлён до v2.54
- Записи в реестре на всякий случай
- Адаптированная русификация от Фаргус на выбор

Запуск проверялся на WinXP-SP3 и Win7-64
Над версиями 1.0-1.02 трудился только разработчик, с 1.03 по 1.05 разрабатывались совместно с фанатским обществом (KGB's), с версии 1.05A работали только фанаты
Русификатор не совсем полный, какой есть под такую версию.
Warlords4PBEMManager не запустился, на оригинальном установочнике также. Знаете почему, ответьте.
Герой Amthor внесён неофициальным патчем.

* * * * *

Взято с http://www.ag.ru/reviews/warlords_4_heroes_of_etheria
Простота — залог здоровья и успеха. Игра со сложными правилами редко добивается настоящей популярности, и здесь нет ничего удивительного. Многие (даже большинство) покупатели, обзаводясь очередным CD, надеются именно поиграть, расслабиться, и многочасовое изучение правил никак не входит в число их приоритетов.

Легко научиться — сложно играть; примерно так выглядит формула идеальной компьютерной игры. Разработчики из Infinite Interactive не захотели изобретать велосипед и каким-то чудом умудрились избавить проверенный временем геймплей от «революционных» нововведений. Warlords 4 напоминают хорошего знакомого, который долгое время где-то пропадал. Поначалу кажется, что уже не помнишь, чем он занимается и о чём вообще с ним можно говорить, но проходит полчаса… ба, да ведь перед тобой почти тот же самый человек! Конечно, в одну и ту же реку дважды не войдешь, но это не повод отказывать себе в мелких радостях.

Герои видимого фронта
Борьба за светлое будущее начинается в исконно ролевом стиле — с создания своего лорда: портрет, имя, название главного города (забавно, но наш «бивуак» будет исправно перелетать из миссии в миссию), главное и второстепенное умения и любимая раса. Никакой возни с мелкими малозначительными параметрами, только самая соль. На основном экране — знакомая изометрия, симпатичные замки, шныряющие туда-сюда отряды, «культовая» кнопка «End turn»… Мы снова дома. Витающий неподалеку дух пионера жанра походовых стратегий угадывается моментально. Непотопляемое семейство Heroes, интеллигентная Age of Wonders, не совсем вменяемые Disciples и Empire of Magic — все эти игры вышли из «Лордов», захвативших персональные компьютеры еще в те непросвещенные времена, когда страшненькая двухкнопочная мышь считалась экзотическим «хай-теком».

Цель игры вращается вокруг столицы, в которой безвылазно сидит наше «Я». Захватили вражескую цитадель — смело откупоривайте советско-игристые вина, миссия завершена; не выдержали напора превосходящих сил противника — что ж, извините, сохраняться нужно чаще. Остальные вольготно разбросанные по окрестностям замки служат исключительно для пополнения военного бюджета и снабжения армии живой силой. Собрав несколько ударных групп, лучше не растрачивать их на оккупацию не слишком нужных укреплений, а сразу всей толпой идти на основной оплот неприятеля. По сравнению с HoMM, где можно было чуть ли не до бесконечности выкуривать друг друга из городов, это своего рода прорыв. Не забывайте о сидящем на крыше самой высокой башни лорде. Если от стада вечно пьяных гоблинов он отобьется сам, то для отражения массированной атаки понадобятся помощники. Поверьте: убить могут любого, обхват бицепса и удельный вес брони в лучшем случае отсрочат кончину смельчака.

Строительство домиков и добыча полезных ископаемых не выдержали мощной рационализаторской струи и практически полностью сгинули. Впрочем, «сгинули» — слово для поклонников творчества New World Computing; истинные адепты жанра наверняка помнят, что в Warlords игроку никогда не забивали голову подобной ерундой. Ресурсов всего два — золото (благородный металл «произрастает» в городах) и мана (вернее, скорость ее регенерации). Дабы не было нужды годами копить деньги, рекомендую прогуляться по ближайшим руинам. Драконы и прочие жадины с удовольствием пожертвуют свой капитал на благо государства. Кстати, знакомая по предыдущим сериям халява приказала долго жить. Вместо одиноких променадов по заросшим паутиной подземельям мы получили вполне рядовое побоище с засевшей там нечистью. Совсем растолстели современные герои — без персональной охраны и биотуалета даже подвиги совершать не желают.

Производство юнитов также упрощено до предела. Выбираем одно из шести доступных созданий, ждем положенное количество ходов и «на выходе» получаем черно-зеленого кавалериста или поросшее мхом прямоходящее дерево. Капиталистические отношения вовлечены в процесс косвенно; обучение войск проходит бесплатно, деньги понадобятся на содержание боеспособных единиц. Дабы избавить лорда от соблазна превратиться в «скупого рыцаря», к нашим воротам то и дело прибывают прокачанные товарищи, предлагая свой меч, коготь и зуб в обмен на круглую сумму в свободно конвертируемой валюте. Вложения, можете не сомневаться, окупаются.

Боевая система искренне удивила, спор о ее достоинствах и недостатках не утихает по сей день. В одном отряде может находиться до восьми юнитов, в городах дополнительно размещается гарнизон — его максимальная численность тоже ограничивается боевой восьмеркой. Когда отряд нападет на противника, игра переходит в тактический режим. Правда, реальной тактики здесь кот наплакал. Воины сражаются один на один. Главное отличие от предыдущей серии заключается в том, что теперь мы сами выбираем, в каком порядке выставлять бойцов — пустить ли вперед дешевое «мясо» или сразу кинуть в бой самые ценные кадры. Отступить нельзя. Выбранный головорез сражается до конца. Именно эта особенность заставляет держать в отряде два-три обреченных юнита, основная задача которых — принять на себя огонь оборонительной башни (если речь идет о захвате города) и, по возможности, избавить нас от всякой мелкоты.

Нехитрая концепция на поверку оказывается непредсказуемой. Дело в том, что все юниты «по умолчанию» наносят неприятелю одинаковое количество повреждений — разница проявляется в толщине здоровья, специальных умениях бойца и параметре «combat» (сродни известному «to hit» из D&D-ролевиков), отвечающем за вероятность нанесения удара. При должном везении какой-нибудь малохольный гаденыш может одним махом снести половину «жизни» самого ценного героя. Однако даже если Фортуна вам благоволит, неудачный удар все равно, в обязательном порядке, снимает единичку — бескровных побед здесь не бывает. Хорошо хоть, что потрепанные войска быстро восстанавливаются. Если все остались живы, на следующем ходу вы даже не вспомните о битве. Сложно? Нет проблем, можно полностью отключить тактический режим. Тогда при встрече двух конкурирующих группировок игра просто выдаст итоговый результат и сообщит о потерях. Суровый аскетизм эпохи зарождения компьютерных развлечений.

В остальном же все очень похоже на Warlords 3, и это нормально. Сюжет?.. Как всегда, его присутствие носит чисто формальный характер. Злобные демоны вырвались из преисподней и пытаются установить свои порядки на Земле. Подробности представьте сами. Гораздо более привлекательно смотрится схема выбора миссий — помимо сюжетных заданий нас ждет увесистая куча дополнительных карт, победа на которых может одарить полезным в хозяйстве бонусом: новый прокачанный герой, перманентное увеличение уровня морали… Не говоря уже о том, что некоторые из этих необязательных для выполнения миссий оказываются интереснее основного конфликта.

Графика довольно симпатична, звезд с неба не хватает, но сравнение с Heroes 4, от чрезмерной детализации которой мельтешило в глазах, оказывается явно в пользу нашего сегодняшнего клиента. Приятная изометрия, разрешение от 800х600 и выше, не вызывающий вопросов интерфейс и, главное, никаких следов ног, коими обычно отмечается путь отряда — переливающееся подобие Млечного Пути выглядит намного симпатичнее. Экран сражений, на мой взгляд, реализован чересчур схематично; давно пора оживить «бумажные» бои, которыми славятся все походовые стратегии. Набор спецэффектов очень скромный. Дикие красоты Disciples 2 так и остались непонятыми.

Вечная битва
Главная роль в игре традиционно отдана на откуп героям — бесстрашным парням, очаровательным девушкам и существам, о половой принадлежности которых можно лишь догадываться. Их главное отличие от обыкновенных юнитов кроется в умении пользоваться артефактами — действительно редкими предметами, увеличивающими те или иные боевые параметры. Да и сила привычки срабатывает. В свите нашего лорда всего три свободные позиции; очень быстро выясняется, что таскать за собой увешанную медалями баллисту или «драгонлича» и отказываться от обладающих несоизмеримо большим потенциалом для развития героев слишком накладно.

Далеко не последнее место в построении стратегии играет набор юнитами опыта. После успешного завершения битвы выжившие участники получают равное количество «экспы» (за исключением того, кто нанес завершающий удар, — он «поумнеет» чуть сильнее). Опытный боец существенно отличается от вчерашнего выпускника военной академии; не раз и не два вы будете ловить себя на том, что переигрываете сложную битву из-за неожиданной гибели полюбившегося юнита. Причем речь идет не только о героях, но и о рядовых борцах за «мир во всем мире».

Уникальные таланты наших свирепых ратоборцев просто нельзя оставить без внимания. Обеспечивающий оперативное лечение «regeneration», защищающие от повреждений «armor» и «warding», убийственный для окружающих «fire», популярный среди плохо воспитанных чудищ «manslayer» (не волнуйтесь, в загашнике нашлось место для «orcslayer», «giantslayer», «dragonslayer» и т. д. — по количеству рас), не нуждающийся в представлении «smite evil»… Умений много, все они в состоянии похвастать наличием пяти уровней для развития, но самое поразительное — я не заметил откровенных глупостей. Особенно понравился присущий темным эльфам «terror» — едва ступивший на поле брани враг бросает оружие и с воплями бежит к маме (выражаясь научно, столбик здоровья и упомянутый выше параметр «combat» уменьшаются до критического минимума).

Десяток рас сюрпризов не преподнес. Рода войск у всех однотипные, хотя и обладают рядом существенных особенностей. У одних больше жизни, у других выше скорость, третьи без штрафов перемещаются по густым, якобы средневековым лесам… Вроде бы ерунда, но по ходу игры заставляет обратить на себя внимание.

В качестве довеска упомяну магию. Сначала изучаем нужное заклинание, потом копим ману и колдуем. Ничего нового и нестандартного. Жизнеутверждающие пассы, как правило, совершаются на основной карте; непосредственно перед битвой повесить на свой отряд парочку волшебных бонусов — милая забава. Порадовали summon-заклинания, занимающие половину записной книжки. Забудьте о том, как вы ждали неделю для того, чтобы призвать себе в помощь одинокое потустороннее чудище. То ли дело «legion of doom» — сразу семь кровожадных темных всадников под предводительством сильно крутого «комдива». Несокрушимый отряд, готовый материализоваться в любой точке карты. Единственное «но» — чем дальше от столицы вы соберетесь колдовать, тем дороже обойдутся «копперфильдовские» фокусы.

99% игрового времени занимают боевые действия; торговлю или дипломатию на нашу шею, к счастью, не повесили. Каждый, кто рискнул выползти пред наши очи, является врагом. После Heroes, изводивших игроков поисками строительных досок и бесконечным микроменеджментом, чувствуешь себя заново родившимся. «Мордобой» начинается на первом ходу и продолжается вплоть до появления свитка, сообщающего о победе или поражении. Затем повышаем уровень лорда (бедняга всю игру сидит на пятой точке и получает вожделенные очки лишь между миссиями), выбираем следующую карту и вновь погружаемся в атмосферу вечной войны. Лучший способ защиты — нападение, и Warlords 4 полностью соответствует этому крылатому выражению.

Еще здесь нашлось место для романтических поисков клада. Нет, знакомой по Heroes мозаики не предвидится, все намного проще. Мы выполняем несколько постепенно усложняющихся квестов (для их получения необходимо захватить город с присоединенным алтарем) и получаем шикарный приз. Какой именно — не скажу, но после его обретения расправа с конкурентами покажется детской забавой. Правда, на легкую жизнь рассчитывать не приходится. Часто оказывается, что порубить противника «дедовскими» методами гораздо проще, чем мотаться из одного угла карты в другой и изводить местную популяцию драконов.

Ну и, разумеется, мультиплеер. Масса режимов, включая нетребовательный к скорости соединения PBEM, серьезно продлевает срок пребывания игры на жестком диске. Для разминки есть почти три десятка skirmish-карт, играть на которых не менее интересно, чем проходить основную кампанию.

Старый конь борозды не испортит
Настоящая классика. Отточенный геймплей, минимум нововведений, увесистый мешок пряников для желающих сразиться с живым противником. От общения с Warlords 4 остаются удивительно ясные и не нуждающиеся в дополнительных толкованиях впечатления. К сожалению, развитие жанра, похоже, зашло в тупик; не исключено, что в конце концов отличить одну походовую фэнтезийную стратегию от другой станет почти невозможно. Определенно не «Наш выбор», хотя поместить игру в «Золотой пантеон» все-таки стоит.

Неполный список неофициального 1.05B:
* Ctrl+click to select just one unit from a stack.
* Ctrl+right click to select whole stack.
* Fixed the bug that made the game freeze when the AI tries to rebuild a city when it doesn't have enough money.
* Fixed the bug when summoned mounts won't make the hero fly.
* Clicking a hero in the units menu chooses the hero's stack and centers the map on it.
* Hellbore is now an evil unit.

Список изменений неофициального 1.05A:
It contains fixes for the following bugs reported by players:

1) Elfslayer properly replaces Dwarfslayer on the Elfguard.
2) The upgrade cost to an Inn now properly reports as 1000 gold (instead of 2000).
3) Right clicking on a skill in the unit upgrade window brings up the correct Help Content.
4) Retinue/Mercs/Heroes now added to the 'next unit' cycle.
5) Reports menu properly displays totals for human side as dead players are removed.
6) Update the retinue items on View Warlord Menu after Shatter has been cast.
7) Add +2 life bonus to siege units when attacking a city.
Added the Amthor Warlord for the Amthor campaign to the Warlords directory.
9) Fix bug in MP where AI units sometimes gain 100 or more levels when attacking remote players.
10) Fix bug in MP where remote players units sometimes appear as phantom stacks after AI captures and razes a city.

Note: This is just an executable update plus the Warlord for the Amthor campaign.

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Infinite Interactive
Warlords IV: Heroes of Etheria v1.05
June 2007
README_105.TXT

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It's been quite a while since the last patch, but that wait should be more
than made up for by the fact that our good friend Tim Sowden (aka KGB) with
the help of a number of other tireless Warlords has added more in this patch
than 1.01 - 1.04 combined.

ENJOY!

The 1.05 Patch for Warlords IV: Heroes of Etheria contains fixes/changes for the
following problems:

Warlords:

* The Merchant skill now increases the chance of a merchant offering an item for
sale at cheaper prices (in addition to all previous benefits). The increase is
3% per level with a 2% per level discount. If the side has more than 1500 gold
then the chance the item offered is a major instead of a minor goes up by 5%
per level.

* The Engineer skill now allows certain sites to be upgraded (in addition to all
previous benefits).
Level 1 : A Well may be upgraded to an Aqueduct (cost 1000 gold)
Level 4 : A Forge may be upgraded to a Foundry (cost 1000 gold)
Level 7 : A Farm may be upgraded to an Inn (cost 1000 gold)
Level 10 : A Timbermill may be upgraded to a Windmill (cost 2000 gold)

* The Anti-Magic skill now supresses enemy spells in combat at a rate of 5% per
level (in addition to all previous benefits). Each time a side with the
Anti-Magic skill places a unit in combat a check is made to see if enemy
spells are surpressed against that unit. If the check is successful all enemy
spells are supressed while that unit remains alive. If the check is not
successful then enemy spells remain active. The Magic Immunity skill on
units/items DOES NOT gain this ability!

Sites:

* The Foundry site was renamed to Forge.

* A new site called an Aqueduct was added that gives +4 life to units.

* A new site called a Foundry was added that gives +2 combat to units.

* After a side reaches 5 Inns, each additional one now gives a diminished effect
of +2% per Inn to the chance of a hero offer.

Races:

* The Race Wheel was re-aligned as follows:

1) The Elves move to the Empire spot.

2) The Empire moves to the Dwarves spot.

3) The Dwarves move to the Elves spot.

Knights
Dwarves Elves
Dragons Empire
Deamons Minotaurs
Dk Elves Orcs
Undead

The opposite races are now:

Knights - Undead
Elves - Dk Elves
Empire - Deamons
Minotaurs - Dragons
Orcs - Dwarves

This fits with the theme of keeping the good races at least 2 neutral races
away from the evil ones. The opposite races on the wheel are matched for
natural hatred and the slayer skills were changed to reflect that.

Skills:

* Added a new skill of Daemonslayer.

* Added a new skill of Monsterslayer.

* Deathgaze chance was increased by 5% to
Level 1 : 10% chance (formerly 5%)
Level 2 : 15 chance (formerly 10%)
Level 3 : 20 chance (formerly 15%)
Level 4 : 25 chance (formerly 20%)
Level 5 : 30 chance (formerly 25%)

Units:

* Swordsmen now get Deathslayer as their primary ability (formerly Dragonslayer)
and Scouting as their secondary ability (formerly Deathslayer).

* Bowmen now get First Strike as their secondaray ability (formerly Scouting).

* Archons are now type Monster (formerly Celestials).

* Elf Guards now get Elfslayer as their primary ability (formerly Dwarfslayer).

* Treants now get Siege as their secondary ability (formerly Build).

* Ballista now get Siege as their secondary ability (formerly Dragonslayer).
However none can be built in cities with the siege skill.

* Cavalry now get Daemonslayer as their secondary ability (formerly Speed +2).

* Minotaurs now get Dragonslayer as their secondary ability (formerly Elfslayer).

* Goblins now get Dwarfslayer as their primary skill (formerly Scavenging).

* Spiders now get Elfslayer as their secondary ability (formerly Speed).

* Soul Gatherers now get Manslayer as their secondary ability (formerly Negate).

* Dragonsknights now get Giantslayer as their secondary ability (formerly
Manslayer).

* Axemen now get Build as their secondary ability (formerly Giantslayer).

* Ogre Hero now gets Poison as an ability (formerly Dwarfslayer).

* All Heroes replace any race slayer skills with Monsterslayer.

Spells:

* Raise Dragon now summons a L9 (formerly L Dragon with Vampirism +1.

* Altar of Wind now has an upkeep of 3 (formerly 4).

* All Altar spell effects are changed to be based off the Warlord Level.

Altar of Battle L1-14 +2 (formerly +6)
L15-29 +3
L30+ +4

Altar of Wind L1-14 +1 (formerly +2)
L15+ +2

Altar of Stone L1-14 +2 (formerly +4)
L15-29 +3
L30+ +4

Altar of Fire L1-14 +2 (formerly +4)
L15-29 +3
L30+ +4

Altar of Night L1-14 +2 (formerly +3)
L15-29 +3
L30+ +4

* Added a new Hero Spell sphere which works as follows:

1) Hero spells may be researched by any Warlord type. The research time for
each is fixed and can not be reduced.

2) Hero spells may be cast ONLY when a hero is present in the stack.

3) Any of the five dispel magic spells will dispel a hero battle spell.

4) Hero spells may still be cast if the Warlord dies, however no further spell
research is possible.

5) Hero spells will be mixed in with the normal spells available for research
and will use Orange colors and unique icons and sounds to distinguish them.

Hero Spell Table

Spell Name Type Mana Research Time
Heroic Presence Battle 6 3
Heroic Strike Battle 8 3
Heroic Expertise Battle 12 3
Heroes Feast Battle 10 3
Heroes Mount Creature 18 6

Heroic Presence - Add +2 Morale for the current Battle.
Heroic Strike - Doubles the chance for a critical hit for all units.
Heroic Expertise - All units gain +1 to their damage.
Heroes Feast - All units gain +2 life.
Heroes Mount - Summons a specially trained mount for the hero to ride.

The mount summoned is based on the Heros Race and Level

Good Hero - Pegasi
Neutral Hero - Storm Dragon
Evil Hero - Wyvern

Hero L1-5 - L1 Mount
Hero L6-10 - L2 Mount
Hero L10+ - L3 Mount

NOTE: The mount will be SPECIALLY tied to the hero it is summoned for.
Furthermore the mount is not a taxi, it does not carry your buddy or
girlfriend or anything else. Just your hero. So if you want 2 heroes to
fly you will cast the spell once for each hero. Also each hero can only
have 1 mount, subsequent mounts can be summoned for the hero but the
hero will only be able to ride the last one summoned.

To mark this for players, the mount is 'named' after the heroes name so
if your hero is named 'KGB' the mount will be named 'KGBs Mount'. So
short hero names will be better than long since there is limited display
space on the screen.

You can most definitely seperate mount and hero if you wish but then
the hero won't be able to fly.

Should the heroes mount be slain over water or lava, the hero will die
as he plunges to earth. Over forest or mountains the hero will survive
but will be trapped there until another mount is summoned unless the
terrain next to him is passable without flight.

If your running the wind spell, the mount will get the move bonus, but
the hero won't.

Items:

* A new major armor item called 'Medal of Valor' was added that gives +50% XP
bonus to the stack.

* A new major misc item called 'Beedub's Horn' was added that gives +1 Morale to
the side.

* A new major misc item called 'Figurine of Kor' was added that gives -1 to all
Enemy Morale.

* A new minor misc item called 'Golden Chest' was added that gives +10 gold per
city.

* A new minor armor item called 'Paladin's Armor' was added that gives +1 Divine
Magic.

* A new major weapon item called 'Cross of Power' was added that gives +2 Divine
Magic.

* A new minor misc item called 'Gloves of Skill' was added that gives +1 Rune
Magic.

* A new major head item called 'Mask of Vulcan' was added that gives +2 Rune
Magic.

* A new minor weapon item called 'Sheppard's Staff' was added that gives +1
Nature Magic.

* A new minor misc item called 'Four Leaf Clover' was added that gives +2
Nature Magic.

* A new minor misc item called 'Summoning Orb' was added that gives +1 Summoning
Magic.

* A new major misc item called 'Daemon's Heart' was added that gives +2 Summoning
Magic.

* A new minor misc item called 'Tome of Necromancy' was added that gives +1
Necromancy Magic.

* A new major misc item called 'Talking Skull' was added that gives +2
Necromancy magic.

* A new minor weapon item called 'Deamonic Crossbow' was added that gives +2
Daemonslayer.

* A new major weapon item called 'Heroes Torch' was added that gives +5
Monsterslayer.

* a new minor armor item called 'Rangers Cloak' was added that gives a move
bonus on all terrain to the stack.

* A new artifact misc item called 'Ring of Escape' was added that allows a hero
to avoid a deathblow.

* A new major misc item called 'A King's Ransom' was added that grants Fealty
from any neutral city.

* A new minor misc item called 'Dwarven Ale' was added that gives a 10% increase
in the chance to get mercenaries offering for hire each turn.

* Items that give bonus's to the entire side no longer stack. Only the best item
bonus is applied for a side. This applies to Mana Regen, Max Mana, Morale,
Enemy Morale, all Magic (Divine, Rune, Nature, Summoning, Necromancy) items.

* All items now have unique icons so they can more easily be distinguished.

NOTE: The items that grant increases to Magic Skills (Divine, Rune, Nature,
Summoning, Necromancy) do not grant the ability to cast/research spells
in those spheres. They only increase existing Warlord skills.

The Escape skill automatically activates when a hero in combat is about
to be killed from a hit. It returns him to the stack as if he was
terrorized (set to 1 life). The hero may still be killed If he is returned
to combat or hit from multi-attack damage. It does not prevent death from
Assassination, Death Gaze or Archery.

The Ring of Escape and King's Ransom are single use items. Once used they
are removed from the heroes inventory.

The Medal of Valor adds to any bonus from Weaponmaster so that Level 10
Weaponmaster + the Medal of Valor would give +150% XP bonus.

Terrain Effects:

* Terrain effect modifiers for races, unit types and abilities have been added
into combat. All categories that a unit belongs to will be be applied. For
example Elf Cavalry in a Forest would get -1 combat for being Cavalry and +2
combat for being Elves for an overall bonus of +1 combat.

* There may be more than one terrain type affecting a combat. In that case all
modifiers for the terrain types will be applied.

* The terrain is the terrain the defender occupies and it is shown at the top
of the combat screen.

* Terrain types and bonus's/penalties are:

Chasm: No bonus's
City: Archery units : +1 combat when defending
Siege units : +1 combat and +2 life when attacking
Desert: Orc units : -1 combat
Undead units : -2 life
Forest: Cavalry units : -1 combat
Elf units : +2 combat
Hill: Dwarf units : +2 life
Ogre units : +2 life
Lava: Dark Elf units: -1 combat
Daemon units : +1 combat and +2 life
Elf units : -1 combat
Units with Fire skill : +1 Fire
Marsh: Orc units : +1 combat
Undead units : +2 life
Units with Disease skill : +1 Disease
Mountain: Dragon units : +2 life
Dwarf units : +1 combat and +2 life
Ogre units : +1 combat and +2 life
Plains: No bonus's
Road: Cavalry units : +1 combat
Infantry units : -1 combat
Siege units : -1 combat
Rock: Dark Elf units : +1 combat
Dwarf units : +1 combat
Ogre units : +1 combat
Ruin: Archery units : +1 combat when defending
Cavalry units : -1 combat
Fliers : -1 combat when attacking
Monster units : +1 combat and +2 life when defending
Units with Terror skill : +1 Terror when defending
Snow: Daemon units : -1 combat and -2 life
Dragon units : -1 combat
Units with Fire skill : -1 Fire
Water: Dwarf units : -2 life
Fliers : +1 combat
Units with Fire skill : -1 Fire
Woods: Cavalry units : -1 combat
Dwarf units : -2 life
Elf units : +2 combat
Ogre units : -1 combat and -2 life
All: Units with Archery skill : +1 Archery versus Fliers

Random Maps:

* The number of Timbermills on a random map was reduced slightly due to
Engineers now being able to upgrade them to Windmills. The number of Gold Mines
was slightly increased to offset the Timbermill reduction.

* Very strong neutral garrisons will now tend to only appear in the central 1/3
of the map instead of 1/2 of the map. Garrisons near the edge will now be
slightly weaker.

Scenario Design:

* Added new event trigger that fires when the city count for a side reaches a
certain count. The XML tag is 'on_city_count' and the only value to enter is
the number of cities.

* Added new event action that allows setting the AI level for each side. The
XML tag is 'AI_level' and the only value is the AI level from Knight to
Emperor (0-3).

* Added new event action that allows automatic casting of a spell in a city.
The XML tag is 'cast_spell' and the only value is the number of the spell
(0-104). This spell will not take mana from the side. The event location
should be set to city to ensure the spell has a valid casting location.

* Updated the Message action to allow a wav file to be played in addition to
displaying a message. To play a wav file with a message add a second string
parameter with an XML tag of 'string2' to the Message event. The data
should be the pathname to the wav file.
Eg. "Assets\\Sounds\\Spells\\SpellHeroes.wav"

* Updated the Chance trigger to allow the random seed to varry a bit instead
of always being fixed each turn. A side's current amount of gold, upkeep and
the current turn number are now factored into the chance value. In addition a
value can be added to this in the event by filling out the second value
field for the Change trigger.

Campaign:

* A new 10 map campaign is included called Amthor. To play it you must select
each of the 10 Amthor maps in 'Skirmish Mode' because there is no way to
create an actual campaign overview map. A Warlord called Amthor is included
that is meant to be the Warlord used in the campaign.

Warlord Editor:

* A completely updated Warlord Editor is included with all the latest items
and unit/hero changes. This means players who didn't install 1.03 don't have
to download the editor seperately.

Bug Fixes:

* Circle of Protection now gives Negate +1 (formerly the bug gave +2).

* Fixed bug where unit id's would be invalid causing crashes when
production/heroes/mercs would arrive in an already full city.

* Increase the number of AI stacks from 250 to 1000 and the number of AI units
from 1000 to 2000 due to crashes when the AI ran out of array space.

* Fixed bug that caused a crash on large/huge maps when the AI needed multiple
turns of movement to reach a city to rebuild.

* Fixed a bug that caused the AI to set production on its cities multiple times
a turn which would slow the AI down to a crawl on slow machines and in MP.

* Fixed a bug that caused the AI to check the city/stack replentish logic
multiple times a turn which would slow down the AI to a crawl when the number
of units and cities controlled by an AI grew large.

* Fixed a bug where if the city garrison had more movement than the city stack
the garrison would lose its extra movement when trying to move out of the city.

* Fixed a bug in MP where minimizing the game would freeze the game in the combat
screen for other players until the game was unminimized.

* Fixed a bug where units summoned to an empty city wouldn't get their full
movement but instead got the movement of the last stack that was there.

* Fixed a bug in MP where the last human player vs some AI's can't save the
game to continue on in solo mode. The game now saves as a solo player game
when only 1 human player remains.

* Fixed a bug where AI stacks with heroes would target and move to a square with
items even though the heroes had no space to take the item. This would cause
the Stack to remain there forever.

* Fixed a bug in MP (I hope) where ghost units would sometimes appear outside a
newly captured city when the AI was moving.

* Fixed a bug where Mana Crystals were not being sent properly in MP mode from
scenario trigger events.

* Fixed a bug where Spells were not being given to a side properly in MP mode
from scenario trigger events.

Miscellaneous:

* A View Chat History option has been added under the View Units menu. In MP
games the last 20 messages can now be recalled. In addition team chat
messages are displayed with leading and trailing ** characters to distinguish
them from general chat messages to all players.

* Regenerating the list of spells to research now always gives an entire new
set of spells to chose from. Before it was possible to get some spell
duplication in the list. If there are is not enough spells to form an entire
new list then some duplicates will appear.

* During the opponent turns the opponent Warlord type and the race being played
are now displayed in addition to the Warlords name and the side color.

* Doing a mouse over of the units in the currently selected stack now shows the
unit stats on the bottom status bar. The stats shown are unit level, combat,
current life, maximum life and movement remaining. This allows a player to
find units with low movement when merging stacks without resorting to
deselecting or right clicking every unit.

* Doing a mouse over of your Mana Regeneration now shows the true regeneration
rate for your side by showing your income from all sources and your upkeep.

* Defeated sides are now removed from all report menus.

* The Help Menu has undergone a massive update:

1) A new Racewheel graphic reflecting the race wheel realignment.

2) Tips for selecting and playing a Warlord have been added to the playtips
section.

3) The Warlord skills section has been updated to 1.05 changes.

4) A Hero skills section has been added describing the hero spells and mounts.

5) The Unit skills section has been updated to 1.05 changes.

6) An Item skills section has been added describing special item powers.

7) A Terrain Effects section has been added showing all bonus/penalties for
every terrain type.

A Miscellaneous section has been added showing the combat table, morale
table, hero/mercenary/merchant offers.

* The Racewheel and the level of the city captured has been added to the City
Capture screen to aid players in deciding whether to raze or keep a city.

* Permanently razing a city now costs gold instead of giving gold. The cost to
permanently raze uses the same formula as the the one used to give gold for
sack/pillage. If a player does not have enough gold the cost will be set to
the current amount in the players treasury so that a player will never lose
the ability to permanently raze due to lack of gold.

* Permanently razed cities are now valid terrain for movement for all stacks.
The movement cost is the same as a road movement cost (2 mp). Combat may
take place on permanently razed cities.

* The ability to queue units in the city production menu with the primary or
secondary ability has been added. To use this feature:

1) First turn on/off the secondary ability button.
2) Select the unit to be produced.
3) Repeat steps 1&2 for the remaining units in the queue.

The production queue will now grey out units that are to be produced with
the secondary ability for a visual reference of what is in the queue. When
a unit in the queue becomes the current unit to be made the secondary
button will automatically set/unset.

NOTE: This feature works with the loop production button to allow players
to create an infinite queue of alternating unit skills.

* Back by popular demand is a complete battle report history for every side!
Under the View Opponents menu a Battle Report button has been added to each
enemy side (team sides still contain the Transfer Gold button) plus your
own side.

1) Selecting an enemy side battle report shows the kills inflicted by you
upon that side as follows:

0 Warlord was overthown
1 Retinue was ground to dust
2 Heroes were gloriously defeated
5 Allies were dispatched with ease
27 Units were surrounded and slain
A total of 5 victories and 6 defeats

2) Selecting your sides battle report shows the kills inflicted on you by all
sides including neutral cities plus some overall empire stats as follows:

1 Retinue was betrayed and slain
3 Heroes were tricked and murdered
11 Allies were mercilessly slain
100 Units were cruelly ambushed
A total of 34 victories and 16 defeats
A total of 16 cities captured and 5 lost
A total of 14 ruins were explored
A total of 2 heroes offered to pledge their sword
A total of 9 allies offered to join our cause
A total of 4 merchants offered an item for sale

NOTE: The city captured/lost reflects the absolute number captured/lost not
the number of unique cities. So if you trade a city back and forth
several times your totals will increase each time that city is captured
or lost.

The hero offer count is a count of the number of turns you are offered
a hero regardless of whether you accept or not including your initial
hero. It does NOT include heroes built in cities or found in ruins/quest
rewards.

The ally offer count is a count of the number of allies who are offered
for sale regardless of whether you accept or not. It is NOT the number
of turns you are offered allies. This means an offer of 5 units
increases the count by 5, not 1.

The merchant offer count is a count of the number of turns you are offered
an item for sale regardless of whether you accept or not.

Counts may not add up exactly as you expect. Units you get from ruins
or via city fealty are considered allies. Thus when they die your ally
death total rises. Heroes you get from ruins or build in cities add to
your hero death total when they die. So you may see something strange
such as 8 heroes lost but only 3 offered to pledge their sword.

The AI:

* Fixed a bug where arrays were too small to take into account the neutral side
when calculating distance to enemy cities.

* Fixed a bug where the city had not switched races before production time was
being calculated when the AI captured a city and did a raze/rebuild.

* Fixed a bug where the dispel spell for some Magic Sphere's was not being
handled correctly in terms when to cast it so that some sphere's would never
be dispelled.

* Fixed a bug where the AI stacks would not pick up more than 2 items lying
in a square even if it had space for them. Now all 4 items can be picked up
if there is space for them.

* Updated the production logic, level up logic and unit value logic to take into
account the Daemonslayer and Monsterslayer skills when producing, upgrading
and valuing units.

* Updated the purchase item logic to take into account all the new item skills
when deciding whether to accept merchant offers. The AI won't buy items it
can't use (like Divine Magic if it can only cast Rune magic).

* Added logic to handle site upgrades for Engineer Warlords. The AI will
upgrade sites attached to its capitol first. After that it will only upgrade
cities that are not in danger from enemies (basically rear cities) no matter
how much gold it may have.

* Updated the spell research logic to take into account the new hero sphere
spells.

* Updated the spell casting logic to allow the AI to cast the new hero sphere
spells.

* Added spell casting logic for the shatter spell. The AI will now be able to
cast the shatter spell. This will be a valuable spell now with the change
to the Merchant skill and the Uber Retinue option.

* Changed the casting logic for Ring of Fire, Hail and Meteor swarm so that
they can now only be cast by stacks that have a target of another stack
or city (Ring of Fire) and the casting stack must still some of its
movement left. This is to prevent wasted casts of those spells.

* Adjusted some of the AI cheats downward on King and Emperor levels as the AI
no longer needs that much of an advantage.

* The AI item targetting routines were changed to allow the AI to drop items
it can't use (Build, Scouting, Scavenging, Income, Magic Spheres the Warlord
can't cast from) and replace them with items it can use. This will allow the
AI heroes to accumulate better items over time.

* The stack targetting logic underwent a change to prevent the AI from over
targetting stacks. The AI now keeps track of the number (and strength) of
each stack it has targetted toward an enemy stack. Once a certain threshold is
reached where the AI feels confident of victory, it will ignore that enemy
stack when finding targets for the rest of its stacks. This prevents the issue
of 5 stacks chasing down a lone unit/weak stack.

* Added a new targetting routine to find empty enemy cities. If nearby empty
enemy cities are detected they get priority over any other target type.

* The A grade stack logic underwent a massive change to improve handling of
A grade stacks. The first part involves preventing A grade stacks from leaving
a city empty in order to rush off to a new target. A grade stacks are now
prevented from leaving a city until the garrison reaches a certain strength
based on nearby enemy presence. The second part involves adding HitNRun logic
which allows A grade stacks to pop out of a city, attack a nearby weak enemy
stack and then return to their city just as a human player would. This change
also means the AI expansion will be slightly slower now as it encounters
enemies.

* The AI combat logic underwent a complete re-write to improve how the AI uses
its armies in combat. I essentially wrote a combat simulator for the AI. It
takes into account virtually every important skill during and between (heal/
regeneration) combat rounds factoring in spells, items etc. Bonus's and
penalties are given for certain skills (eg. things like avoiding placing
archery, curse, bless and heal into combat while giving preference to
slayers/smite skills when the current enemy unit is vulnerable to those
skills). In addition the AI now divides all its units into 3 categories
(hero, valuable and cannon fodder). A best unit is found in each category and
then the three bests are compared to find the optimum unit to send into
battle. In addition, hero and valuable units have a 'gotta beat em all'
mentality so they will only get serious consideration when they can survive
against all remaining enemy units.

The result is quite impressive. The AI does a really good job now with
selecting units for combat. It holds back heroes and valuable units until the
end but can still send them in against the last enemy or two so that they can
get the majority of experience just as a human player would. While I wouldn't
agree with every AI choice (I defined valuble for the AI as high level units),
I'd agree with a vast majority of them and the simulator has revealed a few
things to me regarding how good certain units/skills are/aren't. Combat now
seems a lot closer to what happens when two human players battle it out.

The unexpected bonus of this is you can now allow the AI to fight your
battles for you without worrying it will do something dumb like put your
heroes in danger. This makes PBEM games viable since the AI always fights
for the defending human player.

* A new difficultly level called 'Emperor with Uber Retinue' was added. The
only difference between this an Emperor is that the AI Warlords will come
equipped with Uber Retinue's as follows:

1) All 3 retinue will be the level of the single highest human player retinue
unit plus one. If the highest level human retinue level is less than 10
the AI will be level 10. Eg. If you have a retinue of L15, L10 and L5 the
AI will have 3 L16 retinue units.

2) The retinue units will be given combat and life bonus's equal to the
buildings the Warlord has added to the Capitol city. Eg. If the combat and
life bonus is +6 and +6 (a Combat warlord with all buildings added) then
the retinue will have +6 combat and +6 life added to their stats.

3) The retinue will come with items roughly corresponding in value to those
possessed by the human players. The value assigned is a simple scale of
minor=1, major=2, artifact=4. So 1 artifact=4 minors. If your retinue
comes decked out in artifacts, the AI retinue will come the same way. If
you come with one or two minor items, the AI will come the same way. There
may be slight variances as the AI could substitute 1 major for 2 minors
kind of thing.

NOTE: This option while selectable, does NOT work in campaigns. That's
because campaigns have pre-built warlords to face on each map that
include retinue. Randomly build Warlords are only used on Random or
Scenario (pre-built) maps.

Do NOT expect much variance in the AI uber retinue. The AI gets the
very best hero combo with the very best items in terms of fighting
a 'Battle of the Retinue Titans' game. In other words this retinue
is designed to kill other retinue, not be well rounded for all kinds
of situations. However, once the retinue levels creep past L20 or so
these retinues are virtually unkillable without your own retinue.

There is no special AI logic to handle this option. So the AI won't
go out of its way to load up the retinue stack with top units. This
option was really just added as a bonus for solo players to compare
their retinue against the very best combo used in MP games. So don't
write asking for logic to improve the rest of the retinue stack. In
fact if you want a supreme challenge, disband your own retinue (you
won't lose them if you disband them) and try and take down the AI
uber retinue without your own.

* Please delete all old saved games. Older saved games or PBEM games will not
work with version 1.05.

* You may report any bugs at http://www.warlorders.com or the I2 website.